amplexicaul

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

adj. Clasping the stem, as the bases of certain leaves do.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

adj. Having lobes (usually auriculate) that completely surround the stem.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

adj. Clasping or embracing a stem, as the base of some leaves.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

In botany, nearly surrounding or embracing the stem, as the base of some leaves.

Etymologies

Latin amplexus, an embracing; see amplexus + Latin caulis, stem.

(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

These large flowers are produced in bunches of six or ten on each branch, at the height of about eighteen inches; there are many stems, and each one is well branched, the species being very floriferous; the leaves are herb-like, lance-shaped, pointed, amplexicaul, and smooth; root-leaves spathulate.

The _leaf-blade_ is convolute when young, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, variable from 1/4 to 2 inches long and 1/10 to 1/6 inch wide, acuminate, flat or somewhat wavy, glabrous on both the surfaces, rigidly pungent, densely crowded and distichously imbricate in the lower part of the stem, base is amplexicaul, and the margin is distantly serrate and rigidly ciliate.

The _third_ and _fourth glumes_ are half-amplexicaul, empty, epaleate, flabelliform, 4-lobed, 7-nerved, shortly awned at the back, villous; the side lobes are acuminate or aristate and the central lobes are shortly awned.

The _leaf-blade_ is broadly lanceolate, cordate at base, amplexicaul, acuminate or acute, with scattered long hairs both above and below, and some of the hairs of the under surface are tubercle-based, convolute when young; margin of the leaf is wavy, minutely serrate, and ciliated with distant hairs towards the lower half of the leaf when young; the midrib is prominent below.